How Timor-Leste is fighting back against Asia’s scamming gangs

Oecusse, a rugged, remote district of Timor-Leste in south-east Asia, is usually a pretty sleepy place. But in August, Oecusse was rocked by a large police raid on a suspected scam centre, later linked by a UN report to organised crime networks running scamming operations across south-east Asia.

And then in early September, a Facebook post by one of Timor-Leste’s highest political officials made some explosive allegations about a murky criminal underworld trying to get a foothold in the country.

In this episode, we speak to Michael Rose, an anthropologist and adjunct lecturer at the University of Adelaide who has lived and worked in Timor-Leste, about how Asia’s scamming gangs set their sights on Timor-Leste as their next frontier – and the movement to keep them out.

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood and Gemma Ware with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Mixing by Michelle Macklem and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Read the full credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

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• Cambodia is vowing to ‘rid’ the country of scam compounds. But we’ve seen several still operating in the open
• Listen to episode 1 of Scam Factories '‘It seemed like a good job at first’: how people are trafficked, trapped and forced to scam in Southeast Asia'
• Scam Factories: read the series on The Conversation
• Organised crime may be infiltrating Timor-Leste’s government. One minister is sounding the alarm

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